Tactics Study Guide, Updated and Expanded: A Guide to Effectively Discussing Your Christian Convictions

By Gregory Koukl

Learn how to defend your faith with confidence and grace in this eight-session, video-based apologetics course (DVD/streaming video sold separately).

In a culture increasingly indifferent or even hostile to Christian truth, followers of Christ need to be equipped to communicate with those who do not speak their language or accept their source of authority.

Based on the strategies described in the classic book of Christian apologetics, the Tactics Study Guide will take small groups deeper into how to artfully communicate the truths of Christianity and keep conversations moving forward in constructive ways.

This study is highly interactive and includes extensive teachings and exercises, such as:

• Step-by-step tactic explanations.
• Real-world scenarios and challenges.
• One-on-one breakout sessions.
• Written responses and personal reflections.

The tactical approaches you'll learn in this course will give you indispensable skills to help you engage others about your Christian beliefs—and it may also deepen your own faith along the way.

Together with the accompanying Tactics Video Study (sold separately), this guide provides an easy-to-follow, well-reasoned plan for mastering the art of maneuvering in conversations about Christian spirituality and ethics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Aug 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9780310119746

Gregory Koukl

Gregory Koukl holds MA degrees with honors in both apologetics and philosophy. He's spoken on over 80 university campuses and hosted his own call-in radio talk show for over 33 years defending "Christianity worth thinking about." Greg is founder and president of Stand to Reason (str.org) and serves as adjunct professor of Christian apologetics at Biola University. He is the author of the award-winning The Story of Reality and the best-selling Tactics.

Book preview

STUDY GUIDE INSTRUCTIONS

An Adventure in Learning

You are about to embark on an exciting adventure in learning with one of the finest training tools available. Tactics Study Guide: A Guide to Effectively Discussing Your Christian Convictions, together with the accompanying Tactics Video Study, provides an easy-to-follow, well-reasoned plan for mastering the art of maneuvering in conversations about spiritual things.

Though the information may be a little challenging at first, by faithfully going through this material you will not only learn it for yourself, but should by the end be able to teach someone else.

In eight one-hour sessions, you will learn how to do the following:

• Initiate conversations effortlessly

• Stop challengers in their tracks and turn the tables

• Graciously and effectively expose faulty thinking

• Maneuver through minefields

• Present the truth clearly, cleverly, and persuasively

USING THIS STUDY GUIDE

The Tactics Study Guide is meant to be easy to use. It’s designed so you can readily see the relationships between the main ideas. You’ll also notice that the text is punctuated by special sections, each with its own unique purpose.

AMBASSADOR SKILLS

These sidebars give tips that will help you improve your tactical skills when using your new knowledge so you can present the arguments in a winsome and attractive way.

INTERACTIVE STUDY

These important segments are designed to take your training experience from the passive stage to the active stage. If you’re going through this study on your own, you will sometimes need to enlist the help of another person or even a few people for these sections. Exercises include discussion, role-playing, recall, directed reflection, and memory tips.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

These segments give you a chance to momentarily step aside from the main point and ponder a related idea. It may be an insight, a clever application, or a reflection designed to make the lesson more practical or meaningful.

GOING DEEPER: Information for Self-Study

Here you will find additional information to study on your own that is not included either in this study guide or the accompanying video study.

SELF-ASSESSMENT

A critical element of mastery learning is recall, the ability to bring to mind the important details you’ve been learning. These self-assessment quizzes are a powerful tool to help fix the salient details of the course in your mind so you can recall them quickly when you need them in the future.

DEMONSTRATING MASTERY

At the beginning of each new session, you will find a review of the Self-Assessment material from the preceding session. Be sure to do this exercise—either on your own or with someone else—before each session. It has two purposes. First, by working to recall the main points of the prior session, the ideas will be reinforced in your mind. Second, by reviewing the past material, you will be prepped for the next session.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Additional articles are included at the end of each session to supplement your learning experience. They expand on concepts or principles dealt with during the sessions.

NOTES

The final section of each session has notes that either document the information taught in the manual or offer added insight. You may want to use the references as a guide to additional resources for further study.

THE SECRET TO MASTERY LEARNING

Finally, here is one secret that guarantees mastery of this material: Teach it to others. Anyone who is a student of the material can become a teacher of the material. Perhaps you can give talks in your church, Sunday school, youth group, homeschool, or small group using the notes in your manual and adapting the material to your unique situation.

Whatever way you choose to pass the material on, the benefit will be twofold: You’ll gain a better mastery of the material by teaching it, and whoever you share it with will benefit as well.

SESSION 1

Getting You into the Driver’s Seat: Learning the Columbo Tactic

I. INTRODUCTION

A. This course could change everything for you.

1. You may look back on the time you spent learning this material and mark it as a turning point in your life in the way you engage other people for the Gospel.

2. I say this with some confidence because this is exactly what countless numbers of people have told me over the years. Tactics changed everything for them.

B. The tactical approach you will learn in this course will give you two indispensable skills to help you engage others about your Christian convictions.

1. First, it will train you to maneuver comfortably and graciously in conversations with those who disagree with you.

2. Second, it will teach you the art of maintaining appropriate control—what I call staying in the driver’s seat—in your discussions with others.

INTERACTIVE STUDY

Pair up with another person and explain your answer to the following question: When I think about discussing Christianity with nonbelievers . . .

• I relish the encounter.

• I’m willing, but nervous and uncertain.

• It scares me, but I try anyway.

• I try to avoid it.

C. The missing piece

1. Going to conferences and pursuing individual study provides lots of information, but there’s something missing.

2. There’s a missing bridge that helps you get from the content to the conversation, from the scholarship to the relationship.

3. In this course I want to give you that missing bridge.

D. Goals for the first session

1. First, I’ll define tactics and warn you of some dangers of using a tactical approach.

2. Second, I’ll suggest a significant change in the way you approach evangelism.

3. Third, I’ll introduce you to the first and most powerful tactic, the one that is the core of our game plan.

GOING DEEPER: Information for Self-Study

Apologetics has a questionable reputation with some Christians. By definition, apologists defend the faith. They defeat false ideas. They destroy speculations raised up against the knowledge of God. Those sound like fightin’ words to many people. It’s not surprising, then, that believers and unbelievers alike associate apologetics with conflict. In their view, defenders don’t dialogue; they fight.

In addition to the image problem, apologists face another barrier. The truth is that effective apologetics nowadays requires more than having the right answers. It’s too easy for some people to ignore our facts, deny our claims, or simply yawn and walk away.

Then again, sometimes they don’t walk away. They stand and fight. They wade into battle and fire a barrage we can’t handle. Caught off balance, we tuck our tails between our legs and retreat, maybe for good.

I’d like to suggest a more excellent way. Jesus said that when you find yourself a sheep amid wolves, be innocent but shrewd (Matt. 10:16). This calls for a tactical approach. Even though real spiritual warfare is going on,¹ our engagements should look more like diplomacy than D-Day.

II. OUR NEED FOR TACTICS, WHAT THEY ARE, AND HOW TO USE THEM

A. Our need for tactics concerns our commission to be effective ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20).

1. Ambassadors have three essential skills.

a. Knowledge: an accurately informed mind

b. Wisdom: an artful method

c. Character: an attractive manner

2. These skills play a part in every effective engagement we have with a nonbeliever.

3. The second skill—the artful method, or tactical wisdom—is the focus of this course.

B. Tactics are distinct from strategy.

1. Strategy involves the big picture, the large-scale operation, one’s positioning prior to engagement.

a. I use the term strategy in reference to the tremendous resources of knowledge available to us to be adequately prepared to give an account for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15).

1) In our case, Christianity has strategic superiority—it is well positioned on the battlefield—because our ideas can hold up under serious scrutiny compared to other views.

2) We have an excellent case. We have the best answers to life’s most important questions.

b. Our strategy concerns the content, information, and reasons why someone should believe that Christianity describes the world accurately, all of which fall under the heading of either defensive or offensive apologetics.²

1) Defensive apologetics answers direct challenges to Christianity. For example . . .

(a) It responds to attacks on the Bible’s authority.

(b) It answers the problem of evil.

(c) It addresses Darwinian macroevolution.

2) Offensive apologetics makes a positive case for Christianity. For example . . .

(a) It provides evidence for the existence of God.

(b) It supplies evidence for the resurrection of Christ.

(c) It presents evidence of fulfilled prophecy.

c. Our strategic concerns include a number of contemporary issues.

1) The radical relativism and skepticism of postmodernism that denies the existence of objective truth.³ This would include moral relativism (all moral truth is individual or group based) and religious pluralism (all religions are equally valid and true for those who believe).

2) The competing views on Jesus’ identity.

3) The problem of evil.

4) The ethical issues of abortion, homosexuality, human cloning, doctor-assisted suicide, and the nature of marriage.

5) The historical accuracy of the Gospels.

2. In contrast, tactics literally refer to the art of arranging, deploying one’s assets, the details of the engagement.

a. Tactics, simply put, are about how we maneuver in conversations, allowing us to:

1) Use our knowledge in creative ways.

2) Choreograph the particulars of our response.

3) Style our response to objections.

4) Employ specific methods in addressing attacks.

5) Guide us with sound reasoning, clear thinking, and aggressive advocacy.

b. Often a clever commander has the advantage over a superior opponent through deft tactical maneuvering.

c. Tactics are not:

1) Tricks or slick ruses.

2) Clever ploys to destroy non-Christians, forcing them to submit to your point of view.

3) Attempts to belittle or humiliate or add notches in your spiritual belt.

d. Instead, tactics help you:

1) Manage, not manipulate.

2) Control, not coerce.

3) Finesse, not fight.

4) Navigate through the minefields.

5) Put you in the driver’s seat of the conversation.

e. I offer these warnings about tactics for two reasons.

1) First, tactics are powerful and can be easily abused. It’s not difficult to make someone look silly with these techniques.

2) Second, because the illustrations in this workbook are abbreviated accounts, they may appear harsher, more direct, or more aggressive on the page than they were in reality.

f. I do mean to be direct, focused, and challenging.

g. I do not mean to be abrasive, abusive, or alarming.

h. The goal is to find clever ways to exploit another’s bad thinking for the purpose of guiding him or her to truth, yet remaining gracious and charitable at the same time.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

It is not the Christian life to wound, embarrass, or play oneupmanship with colleagues, friends, or even opponents, but it’s a common vice that anyone can easily fall into.

⁴

—Hugh Hewitt

III. GARDENING VS. HARVESTING

A. Key insight: Before there can be any harvest, there must always be a season of gardening.

1. This insight has completely changed my approach to my conversations with non-Christians. Virtually no one becomes a Christian overnight, especially nowadays.

2. Jesus said:

Don’t you have a saying, It’s still four months until harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying One sows and another reaps is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor. (John 4:35–38 NIV)

B. Notice the breakdown:

1. Two seasons: gardening and harvesting

2. Two kinds of workers: sowers and reapers

3. One team, with everyone rejoicing together!

C. What kind of worker are you, a gardener or a harvester?

1. Gardening takes more work than harvesting, since harvesting is easy when the fruit is ripe.

2. So we probably need more gardeners than harvesters.

3. I’m a gardener, and I bet you are too, at least most of the time you talk with others about spiritual things.

4. And maybe you’ve been sitting on the bench out of play because you weren’t a harvester. Now you know where you can make a difference: gardening.

D. My modified goal:

1. Since I’m a gardener, I’m not focused on harvesting.

2. My main goal is simply to put a stone in their shoe.

a. I want to annoy them in a good way.

b. I want to get them thinking.

c. I want them to see that Jesus is worth thinking about.

IV. THE TACTICAL GAME PLAN

A. Here is my promise to you:

1. I am going to give you a game plan that will allow you to converse with confidence in any situation.

2. It does not matter how little you know, or how knowledgeable or aggressive or obnoxious the other person may be.

B. It’s a game plan that’s simple to follow, yet is tailor-made for each individual and will help keep

Reviews for Tactics Study Guide, Updated and Expanded

[jimmoz-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very helpful presentation on techniques to improve communicating with others on spiritual matters, and it would likely apply to other areas of disagreement as well. -- In a given situation with another, what one thing can I say/ask that will promote thinking or a conversation? No need to do it all; "put a pebble in his shoe."-- Don't get overwrought about getting to the gospel; look for the sheep who seems to take notice (J 10:27-28).-- In replying to someone, ask an open-ended question (Columbo tactic). "What do you mean by that?" "Tell me more."-- Then, if someone makes an assertion, put them on the hook. "How did you come to that conclusion?" (Whoever presents an argument has the responsibility to back it up. Gently press them for the reasons for their belief.-- Don't let yourself get caught in a bind. "Let me think about that." This gives you time to get a good reply, and sets up the next discussion. Can be preceded by, "Would you explain that more?" This is good with a powerful opponent, or with a new topic.-- To begin to challenge someone: "Have you ever considered...." "Can you help me understand something..." This is when you see a hole in their position.-- If you think you are going to be challenged on a controversial topic, maybe precede your opinion by asking, "Do you consider yourself a tolerant person?" Box them into committing to respect your opinion, and then call them on it if they do not.-- Suicide -- when an argument dies from its own weaknesses. Ex: "There is no truth." (Is this a true statement?) "You can't know anything for sure." (How do you know that?)-- Taking the roof off -- Try to follow what happens if the principle of the argument is followed on out. Will it fail?-- Scholars, experts -- Their field may not be applicable to the matter in question. Also, do they merely give an opinion, or also the reasons for that opinion?-- Facts -- Be as specific as possible in your own statements. Look for facts in the opposing position. Do they look plausible?

[graycrew · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book to teach the Christian that when people make statements, assertions, or opinions it's not our responsibility to defend our side. Koukl shows the reader that by asking probing questions the Christian can direct the conversation, and once motives, biases, and definitions are known they can then make a truthful assertion of their own by asking leading questions.This is a great book and a quick read!